224 CUCULID.E. 



Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 915; xii, p. 244 ; Layard, A. M. N. H. 



(2) xiii, p. 453. 

 Surniculus dicruroides, Blyth, Cat. p. 72; Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, 



p. 696 ; Jerdon, B. 1. i, p. 336; Holdsivorth, P. Z. 8. 1872, p.. 431 '; 



Godw.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xlvii, pt. 2, p. 14. 

 Surniculus lugubris, Blyth, Cat. p. 72 ; Horsf. fy M. Cat. ii, p. 695 ; 



Blyth fy Wald. Birds Burm. p. 80; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi, 



pp. 159, 502; Anders. Yunnan Exped. Aves, p. 587; Ball, S. F. 



vii, p. 207 ; Hume, Cat. no. 210; id. S. F. ix, p. 248 : xi, p. 74; 



Legge, Birds Ceyl p. 243 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 128 ; Gates, 



B. B. ii, p. 112 ; Salvadori, Ann. Mus. Civ. Gen. (2) vii, p. 380 ; 



Shettey, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 227. 



Kar-rio-vyem, Lepcha. 



Coloration. Black throughout, with a changeable green and 

 purple gloss, brightest above ; usually, but not always, there are 

 two or three white feathers on the nape, not unfrequently a few 

 white spots remain on the upper tail-coverts ; there is always 

 a white spot on the inner web of the first primary and an oblique 

 band formed by patches on the inner webs of the other quills ; 

 part of the thigh-coverts and markings on the lower tail-coverts 

 are white, and there are white bars, generally imperfect, on the 

 outermost tail-feathers and a few spots on the next pair. 



In the young there is less gloss on the feathers, and small 

 terminal white spots are irregularly dispersed over the plumage ; 

 the white markings are more developed on the tail-feathers, and 

 the under wing-coverts are partly white. 



Bill black ; iris brown ; legs plumbeous ; claws blackish (Gates). 



Length about 10 ; tail 5-25 ; wing 5'5 ; tarsus '65 ; bill from 

 gape 1-1. 



Distribution. Apparently very rare in the Peninsula of India, 

 having been observed only near Eaipur, on the Godavari below 

 Sironcha, and perhaps at another locality in the Southern Central 

 Provinces (Jerdon's locality in "Central India"), also in the 

 Wynaad and Malabar coast-land. This bird is more common in 

 Ceylon, but is locally distributed. It is found at low elevations in 

 the Himalayas as far west as Nipal, and from the Eastern 

 Himalayas throughout Assam, Burma, and other countries east of 

 the Bay of Bengal to Borneo and Java. Probably it is more 

 widely distributed in India, but its extraordinary resemblance to a 

 King-Crow causes it to be overlooked. 



Habits, fyc. According to Legge, this is a tame, quiet bird, with 

 a straight flight, and a remarkably human whistle of six ascending 

 notes, as if some one were practising a musical scale. Its food 

 consists of caterpillars and beetles with various seeds. It is 

 supposed to deposit its eggs in the nests of Dicruri ; and Davison 

 has seen two King-Crows feeding a young Surniculus. 



Genus COCCYSTES, Gloger, 1834. 



Unlike any of the preceding genera of Cuckoos, the present is 

 distinguished by possessing a pointed occipital crest of some 

 length ; the tail is much longer than the wing, and the tail-feathers 



